Twenty Years
by Jaysnow-Silverblaze
Summary: It's been twenty years since Starfire fell into the portal and in this time I became Nightwing. Drabble.  'I used to be a Robin.  Until the day she disappeared.'


**Nightwing's POV:**

I used to be a robin.

Until the day _she_ disappeared.

That's the day I truly began to feel jaded.

I tried to pick up the pieces she had left- namely the beads that had fallen from her friendship necklace when Cyborg broke it. I was their leader. I had to be strong. The problem is, I'm too much of a lone wolf; I don't laugh at Beast Boy's pathetic attempt at jokes- never have. I don't meditate because I have no powers to speak of. I don't have the word 'limitations' in my dictionary.

We held together for three years before Reaven decided she could live without us. She said we were drifting. I knew we were but I hadn't said anything- that was usually _her_ job. Slade captured me again that year. I served him out of a sick sense of perverted punishment for allowing _her_ to disappear without doing anything more. I escaped when I heard that Cyborg's battery was failing and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

During my time with Slade I refused to cross paths with the Titans, that was my only stand so they would think I had disappeared, not changed 'sides'. When I arrived it was to the sound of fighting between Cyborg and Beast Boy. I listened outside the all but abandoned Titain's tower as I heard them shout louder and louder; Beast Boy ended up storming out.

I know Cyborg didn't mean what he had said. He was useless now though, useless and he knew it. His last battery pack was too large and heavy to move around so he would never be able to leave the tower again without his battery dying dangerously quick. I disappeared back into obscurity for a few more years after that, hearing talk of the joke of a hero that called himself 'Beast Boy'. Whenever I heard these stories I would cringe and turn away. I wasn't a hero anymore. I was abandoning them because I couldn't be the leader they wanted.

It had been twenty years since _she_ vanished that I got the urge to return to Jump City. By this time I had changed drastically. Slade was killed four years ago by my hand, I had learned all I could from him and by this time- I was finally a threat to him. In that time I realized that I wasn't the bird many associated with Spring and well wishing; I was a darker bird, a bird that knew horror and tragedy. I was Nightwing.

I fought pickpockets and vagabonds the entire way as they had ravaged the city in my absence. It was in a secluded alley that I heard _her_ voice. I couldn't help but find myself bitterly amused. She was gone- a hundred years in the future- either that, or dead. All the same the man who shouted back at her was familiar as well, in one of those 'I've heard this voice before, It's on the tip of my tongue' ways.

I almost fell off the side of the building I was jumping from when I saw that it really was her and the man was really Warp, the one who had attacked us all those years ago. She hadn't aged a day, still the same naïve girl I had known all those years ago.

She seemed shocked at my new visage- who could blame her. I went from green yellow and red to black and blue- it was more of a Reaven theme than a 'Robin' theme- and when she referred to me as such I immediately corrected her. _Robin_ was the leader of the Titans, I was Nightwing- the vigilante.

I don't know how she did it, but by the time we had re-tracked down Warp the entire team was there- even Reaven. It was in the last moment, when Cyborg opened the portal to the past that I suddenly wanted to hold her. I loved her- I had known since she disappeared; funny how you can't see what had until it was gone.

We both stood there, facing each other near the portal and I held her hands. We were so close we could have kissed but I knew- no matter how much I might wish otherwise- that she wasn't Nightwing's, she was Robin's, the Robin we were sending her back to. I squeezed her hands gently then stepped back with the others. As the portal closed in around her I looked at the others and found myself smiling. Even without Starfire, we were still a team.

For the first time in twenty years, Reaven had let down her hood. Emotionless as always but the visual of her appearance was enough to show that she really was going to be alright. We weren't just figments to her anymore. We were friends.

"Cyborg…" I found myself saying with a small smile. "I wonder where Gizmo has been for the past twenty years… and I wonder if he could make you another battery…"


End file.
